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New details released after actress Kaylee Hottle, who played Jia in the blockbuster films “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” died following a car accident in Ijamsville, Maryland, early Tuesday morning, Page Six reports. She was 18.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Department reported that Hottle was a passenger in a 1995 Honda Accord traveling on Windsor Road at approximately 3 a.m. when the vehicle traveled off the right side of the two-lane roadway and struck a culvert. She was transported to a local trauma center, where she was pronounced dead.
The 19-year-old male driver was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while a second passenger in the crash denied medical assistance.
“Excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor in the collision,” the sheriff’s department stated. The crash remains under investigation.
Hottle’s father, Joshua Hottle, who is deaf, shared the news in an emotional Facebook video using American Sign Language. He explained he was in Texas when he learned his daughter’s heart had stopped on the way to the hospital. He captioned his post, “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take.”
Born in Georgia and raised in Austin, Hottle attended the Texas School for the Deaf. Her acting career began at age 9 when she appeared in a commercial for Glide, a video messaging app popular within the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, according to Page Six.
Hottle reached international audiences with her breakout role as Jia in the 2021 film “Godzilla vs. Kong,” directed by Adam Wingard. In the movie, her character lived on Skull Island and used sign language to communicate with King Kong. She reprised the role in the 2024 sequel.
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